Three Clouds on a Sheltered Bay
by ThereIsMoreThanOneOfEverything
Summary: Rated M as it's slash, but really pretty T. A schmoopy story, written as a thank you to a fellow writer who is beta'ing a story for me. Honolulu is Hawaiian for Sheltered Bay. :)


Sawyer waded into the teal and sky-blue bay, and swam a straight line out to the boulders at the far end of the breakwater. It was still bracingly cool, and at 7:00 a.m. he had the luxury of this whole semi-natural ocean pool just about to himself.

He turned and leaned against the jagged wall, toes and arms gripping the rocks as he surveyed the scene. Purple-blue sky with a purely decorative line of small white clouds on the horizon? Check. Modern hotel towers and old-school resorts slowly coming to life along Waikiki Beach? Yup. Early morning pack of surfers hanging out on the waves, straddling their boards and smoking weed? As per usual.

Perfect first day of vacation? Nope. He felt alone, and that sucked and it was all because of a 5:00 a.m. fight that turned ugly over which vehicle to rent. He wanted to blame Jack, but out here now with the waves sloshing on the rocks, the sun on his back, Sawyer vaguely remembered it might have been partly his fault, too. He recalled standing in the tin and glass rental shack shouting that he didn't want to drive "a lame, no pick-up, leftie liberal electric fuckin' half of a car" no matter how good it was for the environment. Shouting probably hadn't been necessary. It didn't work, either; they took the Prius anyway.

Sawyer knew it was only bothering him because there was something unstated but understood between them about this trip. It was _the_ test. Could they travel together, sleep together, get up every day together and not end up wanting to kill each other? If they could, there would be a future, an 'us'. If not…

He looked back to the beach and saw Jack sitting on the sand, frowning, eyes on his phone. Probably answering work emails, 'cause that's what vacation is for, right?

Sawyer slid away from the rocks and stretched out on his back to float, bobbing around for the longest time. Eventually it felt like the whole world was made up of that sky, those clouds, the water around him so salty it was practically holding him up. He banished all thought, didn't even hear someone swimming to him.

"What are you doing out here?" Sawyer's eyes focused, saw Jack leaning against the rock wall with an expression that straddled a line between confused and annoyed.

Sawyer waited a beat and then stated the obvious, patiently.

"I'm floating, Jack."

"For twenty five minutes?"

"When's the last time you floated on the ocean?"

"That'd be never," Jack said. He looked like he immediately regretted the honesty; like he knew he was about to get a lesson in "Lazing 101" he didn't really want.

"Don't knock it 'til you've damn well tried it. Look," Sawyer half-folded in the water, kicking for a minute and pointing up at three clouds that had broken from the pack. They weren't covering the sun, but they were close to overhead now. "Drop back and just watch those three clouds – nothing else. Don't think about another thing. Try it, and see what happens. You might actually find yourself in danger of relaxing."

Jack looked away at nothing and back to Sawyer again, clearly far from convinced, but then he pushed off the rock wall and drifted out, eyes up. Sawyer did too, but found it hard to get comfortable – part of his brain was chilling, but part was preoccupied now with waiting for the slosh of water that would tell him Jack had quit, hadn't gotten a thing from it, was headed back to shore and away from him at high speed.

Except it didn't happen. Sawyer lifted his head five minutes later to see Jack still floating, arms out, gaze up. It had to be almost ten more before he heard a slow burbling sound. He cracked one eye open enough to see that they'd floated back to a point where Jack could stand, water almost up to his shoulders, smiling gently down at Sawyer's face floating inches below his.

Sawyer snapped his eye closed, fought off a grin as he heard Jack laugh at that. Then he tasted Jack's lips on his, salty from the swim out, warm from the sun that was getting stronger every minute. Jack ran his almost closed mouth over Sawyer's, left to right and right to left over and over, then centered up, tongue flicking, barely, urging Sawyer's mouth open.

Sawyer heard Jack's happiest 'mmmmm' sound deep in Jack's chest as they started dueling for control of the kiss, jaws going alternately tight and slack, heads swaying slowly back and forth. Jack's left hand went under Sawyer's head, fingers cupping, his thumb making circles under Sawyer's ear, and it all felt so good Sawyer almost forgot to float. He started to sink, until Jack's other hand came up flat under the small of his back, holding him up, keeping him where he wanted him.

Jack almost, didn't quite pull away and Sawyer thought maybe that was that until he felt Jack reach in at a new angle to start sucking Sawyer's tongue, first gently then harder. Sawyer half sighed, half moaned at the intimation of what Jack would rather be teasing with his mouth.

"What was that for?" He asked when Jack finally did pull back, hands falling away slowly. Sawyer stood up, feeling light as a water drop and heavy as a rock at the same time, done floating either way.

"That was thank you for being patient with me. Well… being patient sometimes. Not earlier, but... I'm glad you were just now. That was perfect."

"What happened to those three clouds?" Sawyer asked.

"The dark one rained, I think on the surfers," Jack nodded toward the open water. "Then it was gone. The two light ones floated into each other, turned into one cloud."

"Think it's a sign?" Sawyer dropped under water for a second, cooling off, saw Jack nodding as he surfaced. "You're not the type to believe in signs, doc."

"I'm trying. I'll take every good sign I can get. I don't want to screw this up, James," Jack murmured. "I don't want to lose you."

"Gonna take a whole lot more than bitching over a car to lose me," Sawyer started walking toward shore, fingers around Jack's arm, pulling him with. "Just don't take me for granted, and we'll be fine."

"Where are we going?" Jack asked.

"Right now? To our room. Want another one of those kisses from you."

"You can have that right here." Jack saw Sawyer's smile widen as he walked, shaking his head.

"Not where I want your mouth. This is a family beach, gorgeous."

"Knew I could get you out of the water." Jack said.

"Knew I could get you to lighten the fuck up," Sawyer tugged harder at his arm.

"Knew you were playing hard to get out there, sulking." Jack said.

"Hey Jack," Sawyer gave him a little push as they hit the shoreline, and then wrapped himself around Jack's back, whispering in his ear. "Welcome to our first vacation."


End file.
